Rocket Men: Space for the few, wasteland for the rest?

Space achievements stir national pride, but they also prompt reflection on what the advancements mean for ordinary lives. ISRO itself mirrors India’s divides: few Dalit faces in labs, women and minorities sidelined by old barriers of caste, class, and faith.

Indian media has been alive with reports of the country’s latest space triumph – the successful launch of the CMS-03 satellite, a heavyweight communications platform hoisted by ISRO’s LVM3 rocket. This satellite will strengthen maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region, where India faces China’s expanding presence. Space achievements stir national pride, but they also prompt reflection on what the advancements mean for ordinary lives. When we look up at the night sky, that sense of vastness settles in – not just awe but unease. What are we reaching for up there, and who decides? Let’s explore this while Elton John’s 1972 classic, ‘Rocket Man’, plays in the background:

‘She packed my bags last night pre-flight/ Zero hour 9 AM/ And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then’

This month brings a mix of the familiar and the strange: the International Space Station (ISS) marking 25 years of nonstop human presence, India’s steady push with satellites and the NISAR mission, and the odd case of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object passing through our solar system. Observations from NASA’s Hubble show 3I/ATLAS defying easy explanations – a subtle shift in path, a blue-tinged glow, acceleration that gravity should not allow. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb wonders: Is 3I/ATLAS a natural oddity or a technological relic from afar? As the giant rock heads for a distant Earth flyby in December, Loeb implores us to plan missions to find answers.

Meanwhile, the ISS has continued circling Earth every 90 minutes since November 2, 2000. Built through uneasy partnerships, it has drawn over 270 people from 20 nations, turning old foes into colleagues, including Indian astronaut Group Captain Shukla, who visited the station this year. Their work has given us zero-gravity crystals for new drugs and studies on bone loss that help the elderly on the ground. It shows what happens when countries pool expertise, setting suspicions aside. But now, hardware fraying and budgets pinched, the station faces retirement by 2031 – a controlled plunge into the ocean.

Enter the billionaires. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin bring reusable rockets that drop costs from eye-watering billions to manageable millions, firing off missions like clockwork. Satellite webs could beam internet to forgotten villages; commercial outposts like Axiom’s or Orbital Reef might keep the orbit humming with factories, research, and even tourists. Space shifts from a government’s burden to a market’s playground, open to anyone with a couple of ideas and a lot of cash.

‘Oh no no no, I’m a rocket man/ Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone’

What, ideologically, are we leaving behind? In the US, the shutdown has threatened the deep-space probe to Jupiter’s Europa, while crewed private joyrides continue. Globally, it funnels opportunity upward: Space for the rich, spectator sports for the rest of us. Loeb’s plea to hunt interstellar drifters like 3I/ATLAS fits here – those pursuits need shared funding.

‘Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids/ In fact it’s cold as hell/ And all this science I don’t understand’

India’s programme stands as a counterpoint, rooted in public effort but shadowed by real-world frictions. CMS-03 strengthens naval links across the Indian Ocean. NISAR, the Indo-US radar craft scheduled to be fully operational this week, scans for floods, quakes, and vanishing forests to head off disasters in our coastal belts. Gaganyaan edges toward its uncrewed trial, with crewed flights by 2027, leaning on achievements like the SpaDeX docking that proved that India can assemble spacecraft in orbit. ISRO does it lean: Moon landings for mere rupees on the American dollar, focused on tools that serve the many – early warnings that could spare lives in monsoons, secure comms that steady borders without fanfare.

But let’s not excessively romanticise it. Satellites can track not just threats from abroad, but voices at home in a time when dissent already feels chilled. And equity? ISRO itself mirrors India’s divides: few Dalit faces in labs, women and minorities sidelined by old barriers of caste, class, and faith.

Pull it together, and the picture sharpens: The ISS’s sunset signals a world tilting from collective to private individuals, with billionaires steering towards their own priorities. India’s path hints at balance, blending state drive with global ties like NISAR to keep science accessible to everyday people. But Loeb keeps warning us: The stars don’t care about our models. We’ve scarred Earth with shortsighted grabs – polluted skies, hoarded waters. Why assume that space will fare better? Greed travels light, and if we export it upward, we’ll just create new wastelands of galactic scale.

‘And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time/ ’Til touchdown brings me round again to find/ I’m not the man they think I am at home. Oh no no no, I’m a rocket man’

The writer as Dr Jekyll is a Professor of Philosophy, Politics and Law, author and editor of over 20 books and counting, and as Mr Hyde, one of India’s top-ranking Ironman triathletes.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.